Electronically steerable phased-array antennas may be implemented on multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs) by stacking multiple planar layers together that include manifold layers and radiating element layers to achieve an antenna far field pattern at a desired frequency. In addition to using expensive low loss dielectrics and embedded thin film resistor layers, conventional antenna printed circuit board stacks are unbalanced due the use of lower order Floquet mode scattering techniques to achieve desired radio frequency (RF) performance and the use of stripline manifolds to eliminate system resonances. Moreover, multiple lamination cycles are needed to manufacture all of the layers for the printed circuit board stack. Accordingly, conventional phased array antenna printed board stacks are associated with high manufacturing and material costs unsuitable for use in broadband wireless Internet access with low-cost, high volume consumer electronics.
Radomes may be used to protect antenna board stacks from weather elements such as rain, snow, and/or debris-build up. Radomes are generally assembled from an expensive multilayer structure and spaced two wave lengths away from the antenna board stack to achieve reasonable RF performance. While radomes may protect the antenna board stacks, the pooling of water and/or snow upon the outer surfaces of the radomes, may adversely impacts the RF performance of the phased-array antenna implemented on the antenna board stack underneath. In order to address the pooling of water and/or snow upon the outer surfaces of the radomes, the radomes may have curved surfaces increasing the physical volume of the radomes and reducing RF performance due to the increased angle of incidence of the incident electromagnetic fields on the radomes. Accordingly, conventional radomes are associated with high manufacturing and material costs unsuitable for use in broadband wireless Internet access with low-cost, high volume consumer electronics.
Additionally, a casing may be used to house and support antenna board stacks above a ground surface as well as protect exposed surfaces of the antenna board stack from the weather elements not covered by the radome. The casing, when in direct contact with a bottom surface of the antenna board stack, may create resonance implications that negatively impact the RF performance of the antenna board stack.